


no regrets, brother

by beetime



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Gen, Greed lives, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 06:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17761769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beetime/pseuds/beetime
Summary: Ling let out a long stream of breath, elbowing Greed’s side, “You’re lucky I’m as weak as you are. Once I’m back at full health, I’m returning that punch in the face. I can’t believe you.”Greed snorted, “Hey, it worked. You should’ve kept your guard up. And I still can't believe you threw your damn philosopher's stone at me, idiot—”“Half of it, first of all, and you conned me, asshole, second. I didn’t want you to fucking die, sue me for it.”✦greed lives and sleeps and he and ling'll be fine.





	no regrets, brother

**Author's Note:**

> this is based on a fanart that i FOUND!!! its [here](https://humming-fly.tumblr.com/post/172086006600/instead-of-continuing-through-the-five-stages-of)sksksk i just wanted this out here im purging all my wips from my gotdamn doc
> 
> i also wanted an. uh. live greed. edling if u squint i GUESS.

Greed _woke up_.

Which was jarring enough. The next was seeing Ling being the one who woke him up, shutting the hospital door behind him. It took a second for his brain to realize what was happening and remind him of the situation.

“I was surprised too,” Ling said quietly, tiredly. “Were you asleep?”

Greed couldn’t lie to him even if he tried. He shrugged, “I think so.”

He looked at Greed strangely, obviously. Yawned and walked over, kicking the side of the bed. “Move over a little.”

Greed’s instincts told him to snark something back but he just rose an eyebrow, “Huh?”

“Move over,” Ling repeated, like that cleared anything up. Greed had an inkling at what he was getting at though so he did it. Ling slid in next to him and it took some maneuvering before there could both lay down comfortably, shoulders pressed together where they dipped in the middle of the bed.

He didn’t say anything. Greed didn’t either. That might’ve been the worst part, because even when they were silent before, there was still some level of communication. Feelings and sensations and understanding the same shit on the same ground.

Now it was just nothing. Greed had been lonely, before, but never like this.

Ling let out a long stream of breath, elbowing Greed’s side, “You’re lucky I’m as weak as you are. Once I’m back at full health, I’m returning that punch in the face. I can’t believe you.”

Greed snorted, “Hey, it worked. You should’ve kept your guard up. And _I_ still can't believe you threw your damn philosopher's stone at me, idiot—”

“Half of it, first of all, and you conned me, asshole, second. I didn’t want you to fucking die, sue me for it.”

“Hey, that language! I’ll wait till you become emperor to collect my coin, don’t you worry,” Greed said.

“Meaning you’re coming back to Xing with me, right?”

He said it in that tone he used when he was trying to get something out of him. Greed narrowed his eyes at him and Ling looked back indifferently.

Fine, kid. Be that way.

Greed turned away. “Maybe. Why, want me to?”

“Greed,” Ling said, with none of the aggression he’d had a second ago. “Could we. Could we please not do this? Not now, not after all that. ” Tired again. Greed could relate.

He was so, so tired.

He shut his eyes. “You know I don’t know how to do this shit, Ling. _Talking_ about _feelings._ ” He made a gagging noise. “I was half-expecting you to kick me to the curb, anyway.”

Greed peeked at the silence and Ling was giving him a dead-eyes stare. “Seriously?”

“I don’t fuckin’ know! I punched you in the face and called you a sucker, what am I supposed to expect—“

“More from me.”

Goddamnit. God _fucking_ damn it. There it was. Ling could do this thing where he _spoke_ and _articulated_ and _knew what he meant_. It was infuriating during their fights because for all Greed could pretend he didn’t give a shit, he knew Ling was right.

“You’re right,” he said begrudgingly.

Ling made a quiet noise. “Wow, twice in twenty-four hours.”

Greed brought his right hand up to plaster it over Ling’s face, “Looky here, I have hands now. Shut up.”’

Ling licked his palm. Greed yelped and Ling pulled back so it couldn’t be wiped back on him. That, obviously, would not fall through, so Greed made an attempt to do it anyway, Ling still trying to evade him, and the entire thing ended in one of Ling’s legs shoved under Greed’s back and Greed’s arms practically hugging around Ling’s chest from when he was trying to pin him down to slap the hand back on his cheek. They were both kind of out of breath and half-laughing, half-still disoriented from the fact they were in an actual, physical  _tussle_ of all things.

They didn’t move out of it. Greed wanted to make some type of comment about it, a jab at the fact that the kid must have missed him but it would’ve been hypocritical. It’d only been a few hours but he’d felt so utterly alone, worse than ever. Nothing but he and his thoughts was a bad equation. Trust him on that.

Close like this, if he shut his eyes and tried, he could pretend.

“You have friends like that,” Ling said, suddenly.

Greed did shut his eyes. Just for a different reason. He missed being able to recede back into the mind more than ever because then the way his eyes were watering would not have been his fault. “Ling—“

“Everybody saw what you did and can actually consider you more than just a homunculus because of it. Regardless, you have us. Heinkel and Darius and Ed, even if you don’t want to believe it. You’ll have to give Lan Fan a second to come around, but in the end, with everything that you did, she will. You have me, Greed, above all else.

“Don’t call me stupid for saying that,” Greed stuck his tongue between his teeth and Ling attempted to take one hand out to do something before realizing that wasn’t gonna happen and poking Greed’s side hard. “I can hear it, even if I can’t literally.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Greed mumbled. Not his fault that it _was_ —

Ling shifted, turning in more so his head was leaning against Greed’s shoulder like how he always did with Lan Fan or Ed after a dramatic display of tiredness. It was weird, being on the receiving end of something he’d only ever felt as _doing_.

“You have me. I wasn’t just trying to make you stay for my immortality. You’re…” Ling bumped his knee up, digging into Greed’s back, “Again, don’t laugh. I know how I sound but I’m too tired to care. You’re my brother, Greed, in arms or elsewhere.” Greed stilled. “We already… The battle already took Fu. I wouldn’t let it take you too.”

Greed froze. Ling didn't move, if anything holding him tighter, and it hurt in some places but Greed didn't dare fucking move. Instead he shut his eyes against the stupid goddamn tears and smacked his hand up to hit the bottom of Ling’s jaw in a way he’d almost call soft.

“I get it, kid. I get it.”

 

It almost wasn’t a surprise to find them like that in the morning. Ed had made the attempt to open the door quietly in case anyone was still sleeping, and they were, but there was really no threat of waking them up because Greed’s snoring was loud enough as it was.

They were tangled together so Ed could barely really see whose limb was who’s under the blanket. With the way their cheeks were pressed against one another, Ling drooling to contrast Greed’s snoring, Ed had a stark memory of crawling into Al’s bed when they were babies after Al’d had a nightmare, hugging him tight in the hope he could squeeze the memories of it out.

Ed felt something in his chest he should never feel in relation to Greed, but Ling was there too, so he could excuse it. Ed had only reached over to pull the blankets into a better semblance of covering them but it was enough to wake Ling up. His eyes slit open slowly, hand twitching where it was grabbing on to Greed’s shoulder. He waved with it once he saw Ed. “G’morning.”

“Morning,” Ed whispered back, mouth twitching. “Comfortable?”

Ling seemed to realize his arrangement, unsticking his cheek from Greed’s a bit before settling back down, “Kinda, yeah. Came to talk last night, fell asleep.”

“I figured. How is he?”

 _He_ gave a louder snore and Ling shrugged one shoulder, “Still some stuff to work out. But with all things considered…”

“Good?”

Ling's eyes drooped again. He grinned sleepily. “Good.”

**Author's Note:**

> i do have a greed bias why do you mention it?


End file.
